INTRODUCTION xxxi 



amusements common to the court of France and to the 

 throng of exiles from Britain who formed the Court of the 

 uncrowned monarch, Charles II. 



Evelyn longed for settlement in England, because he saw 

 that the Royalist cause was hopelessly lost for the time 

 being. His father-in-law's estate of Sayes Court had been 

 seized and sold by the rebels, but ' by the advice and 

 endeavour of my friends I was advis'd to reside in it, and 

 compound with the soldiers. This I was besides authoriz'd 

 by his Majesty to do, and encourag'd with promise that 

 what was in lease from the Crowne, if ever it pleased God to 

 restore him, he would secure to us in fee-ferme. l I had 

 also addresses and cyfers to correspond with his Majesty and 

 Ministers abroad: upon all which inducements I was per- 

 suaded to settle henceforth in England, having now run about 

 the world, most part out of my owne country, neere ten 

 yeares. I therefore now likewise meditated sending over for 

 my Wife, whom as yet I had left at Paris. ' She arrived on 

 nth. June with her Mother ; and as small-pox was then 

 raging in and about London they sojourned for some time 

 at Tunbridge Wells, drinking the waters. About the end 

 of that month Evelyn went to Sayes Court to prepare for 

 their reception, but was waylaid by footpads near Bromley 

 and came near meeting his death from them. Fortunately, 

 however, ' did God deliver me from these villains, and not 

 onely so, but restor'd what they tooke, as twice before he 

 had graciously don, both at sea and land ;... for which, and 

 many signal preservations, I am extreamly oblig'd to give 

 thanks to God my Saviour. ' 



On 24th July, 1652, Mrs. Evelyn presented her husband 

 with their first child, their son, John, who predeceased his 

 father in 1698. He now busied himself in acquiring full 

 possession of his father-in-law's and the rebels' interests in 

 Sayes Court, which he effected at a cost of ,3,500 early 

 in 1653. 



Then he began gardening and planting on a large scale, 

 transforming the almost bare fields around the house into 

 fine specimens of the art of horticulture, as then practised. 



1 This promise Charles afterwards failed to keep as, in 1672, he merely renewed 

 the lease of the pastures for 99 years. 



